9th Annual King of the Park

Posted on Tuesday, June 02, 2009 by Jorge

We made it to Bourbon Street at 2am. Next time I am there I will join in on the festivities of getting piss drunk, littering in the streets, and checking out one of those sketchy strip clubs. Next time

The little devil on my left shoulder was telling me to go inside, but the angel on the right shoulder keep reminding me of the time I almost lost my lab top

It was really hard to deny the little devil on my left shoulder, but I did right thing

I don't know where Dylan found the energy to pop tricks over this bump to bar at 3:30 in the morning. Oh yeah, we had unlimited supply of Red Bull

Knibblets also has early morning ollies

Dalton Dern ice planting his way to 2nd

Dylan showing you how far Jereme Knibbs made it in the Contest

Jereme Knibbs - 50/50 to transfer from the high quarter to the bank-to-wall

Paul Hart - nollie bigspin over the pyramid

Spencer Lau - tailslide revert

Comedy at its finest. This kid somehow bonelessed his way pretty far down the bracket, almost advancing to the Finals

Knibbs - kickflip over the hubba into the bank

This bowl was five-minutes down the road from the skate park. Dylan has got a backside disaster from low to high

Knibbs - disaster from low to high

That is me frontside grinding over the...hmm, I am not sure what you would call it, the pocket?

Knibbs - backside kickflip

That is me again doing a simple wallride. Man I feel like an old man at 24-years-young only getting frontside grind and wallride photos. I need to step my game up

This is the state capital building in Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is in my top five favorite cities in America

This spot is outside the state capital building. The drop after this nose manual is an ankle breaker

Knibbs - ollie

Baton Rouge has spots for days. What you got on this?

Danilo Rosario has swine flu

Congratulations Timmy and thanks for not sandbagging the Finals

Team carve at Milton Skatepark

This is Knibbs dropping in on wall that got that longboarder arrested. Watch out for cops when you go to Milton Skatepark

Days 1 & 2 (Thursday/Friday)

Dylan, Jereme, and I began our journey after we left Skatepark around 1pm on Thursday. We headed out to Orlando to pick up our good friends, Danny Dorsa and David “Steak” Stoessel. After we scooped them up, it was on with plenty of Red Bull and water supplied for the Clem 350. We made a pit stop in Tallahassee around 7pm and had a very quick sesh on the War Memorial. Due to rain washing us out, we were back on the road.

So the original plan was to end our night in Milton, FL, but due to the fact that we were all hopped up on Red Bull, I decided to charge through and see how far we could make it. After seeing numerous signs for New Orleans, our minds were made up that we were going to skate down Bourbon Street. After arriving and parking outside the strip, our adventure began. You have to take into consideration that’s it’s around 2am and everyone is leaving the bars down there. My overall take on the Bourbon Street strip is this: Horse crap everywhere, the stench of bodily fluids, and sketchy strip clubs. Ybor City’s 7th Avenue is Disneyland compared to Bourbon Street. I felt as if I was skating through the gateway to hell and I wanted to join in on the sin. Miraculously, through the touch of some divine spirit or the fact that I don’t want to lose my job, I was able to have the will power to not join in on the fun. I can only imagine how chaotic Mardi Gras must be.

Street skating wrapped up around 3:30am and we headed out yet again. We finally end our epic 12-hour drive when we arrived in Lafayette, LA at the Holiday Inn Express around 7am, just in time for breakfast.

Following our much needed rest we headed out to the Skate-Spot Skatepark for the remainder of the day, where Jereme skated the Bowl Contest along with the other contenders. Jereme did well in the Contest and used the entire bowl to his advantage, but I guess the judges thought otherwise. Timmy took first as predicted, Dalton Dern took second, and Flether Renagar ended up in third. Check the video footage for yourself. Once awards were given and everything was wrapped up we went back to the hotel for the night.

Day 3 (Saturday)

The King of the Park Contest started early, around 10am. Hotel breakfast/coffee was consumed and it was off to the event. Now if you don’t know the format of this Contest it goes something like this: It is skater vs. skater, tournament style, similar to Battle of the Berrics. But instead of playing SKATE against each other, each skater has a one-minute run, with the skater with the best run advancing to the next round. The bracket of 64 is chosen by a blind draw. If you lose in the first day, you get the chance to redeem yourself the next day in the “loser’s bracket.”

So with that being said, Dylan got paired up with Spencer Lau and got taken out first try. Jereme got paired up with a kid whose name I can’t recall and advanced to the next round where he had to face Timmy. Very tough match up, but Timmy took that round. Since Dylan and Jereme both got taken out, they now had to skate the losers bracket on Sunday.

I was not going to sit at the Skatepark all day knowing that the beautiful city of Baton Rouge was only 45 minutes away, so it was time to find some spots. Travels to Baton Rouge were in order. Baton Rouge is the city just before you cross the Mississippi River if you are traveling west from Florida. I have only been there one time before, but finding spots was really easy. Our sesh ended once night fell and we got rained out on the infamous Baton Rouge banks in downtown.

Day 4 (Sunday)

Back at the Skate-Spot for the “loser’s bracket” and Finals of the KOTP Contest, this time Dylan was matched up against Paul Hart in the “loser’s bracket.” Both had flawless runs, though Paul landed more tricks and that is why he advanced to the next round. Knibbs on the other hand made it through the “loser’s bracket” with ease and advanced to the Finals bracket to face Fletcher Renagar, where he got taken out. Keep in mind that each skater was forced to skate yet another one-minute run if they ended up advancing.

Almost all the skaters found that one run they felt comfortable with and stuck with it throughout the weekend. Knibbs on the other hand, changed his lines throughout the day making it very exciting to watch. When Knibbs got taken out we all sat down and enjoyed the remainder of the Finals. It was a full on America vs. Brazil battle with Timmy Knuth against Danilo Resario. Timmy was sandbagging during Practice, so after a few choice words from yours truly he was back on point and came out victorious against Danilo. Though we didn’t stay for Best Trick, I’m sure it was a off the charts since it was only on the pyramid and ledge.

After the Finals, we wrapped up and headed out yet again to Baton Rouge for more street skating. We scoped out more of what the beautiful city had to offer and made it all the way through to Pensacola for the night.

Day 5 (Monday)

Fully rested and ready for the trek back to Tampa, we stopped in at the Milton Park for a nice afternoon session. The crew was bent on dropping in on that vert wall. You know the one where the longboarder dropped in on and got in trouble with the Police. You can check the footage here. We also stopped off at the Tallahassee Park for a quick sesh before the end of our journey.

All in all, the trip was a complete success. I have a pretty bad track record when I go out of town. I have almost lost my lab-top twice, have lost the keys to the rental van, and have been a complete waistoid on trips where Clements was in charge. So it was important that this trip was mistake-free. Even though we were always running a little bit behind, we arrived everywhere we went just in time. I am really fortunate to have the opportunity to do what I do. A big thank you goes out to Red Bull Sarah for providing us with human fuel, Pete Kelly for inviting us to the 8th Annual KOTP Contest, Jason over at Skate-Spot Skatepark for the genuine southern hospitality, and Kelly Welsh over at Oakley for supplying us with best shades out in the market right now.

Below is the video Steak put together for the Bowl Contest, quotes from the trip, and tally of our Red Bull Consumption.

Ride On

Porpe

Quotes

"Are you writing a story for this? You better put in there that I'm raw as f*#c" – Knibbs speaking sarcastically about himself

"Dylan, let's drink a bunch of cough syrup and see what happens." – Knibbs

"I haven't seen him with a shirt on yet" - Spencer Lau talking about boneless kid

"If there is money on the line, Pat don't play." - Dylan regarding the comment where BC talks about Pat Steiner beating Rob Arron twice in KOTP in 2002